WUT projects awarded SONATINA grants

• Pritam Chakraborty, PhD (Faculty of Physics, funding awarded: PLN 713,748, project title: "Investigation of the emission ordering of mesons and baryons in heavy-ion collisions using pion-proton femtoscopy with ALICE")

The objective of the project is to investigate how different particle types are produced and emitted in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. These collisions recreate the extreme conditions that existed just a few microseconds after the Big Bang, enabling scientists to study the quark-gluon plasma (QGP)—a short-lived, extremely small, and unique state of matter where quarks and gluons are no longer confined inside protons and neutrons.

As part of the project, pion–proton femtoscopy in lead-lead collisions will be investigated in detail for the first time, based on data recorded by the ALICE experiment, with a special focus on its dependence on the pair transverse velocity. This novel measurement will provide new insight into the spatiotemporal evolution of the quark-gluon plasma, showing how mesons and baryons are emitted in the final stages of the collision. The results are expected to contribute to a better understanding of the strong interaction (one of the four fundamental forces), enable testing of state-of-the-art theoretical models describing heavy-ion collisions, and establish a new benchmark for non-identical particle femtoscopy.

Pritam Chakraborty, PhD

Pritam Chakraborty, PhD, earned his PhD in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay), where he conducted research as part of the ALICE Collaboration at CERN. Since 2024, he has been working as an assistant professor at Warsaw University of Technology. He has been a member of the ALICE Collaboration for nine years, and his research interests focus on experimental high-energy nuclear physics, particularly heavy-ion collisions, the properties of quark-gluon plasma (QGP), and QGP phenomenology.

• Sandra Joanna Przepiórkowska, PhD. Eng. Arch. (Faculty of Architecture, funding awarded: PLN 791,170, project title: "Digital mapping of material resources in the Upper Silesian-Zagłębie Metropolis: integrating spatial data and building typologies for urban mining in a circular economy model")

The project aims to characterize secondary material resources in the Upper Silesian-Zagłębie Metropolis (GZM) to provide a data-driven foundation for urban mining within a circular economy model. Although the construction sector accounts for nearly 40% of global emissions, precise knowledge of what lies hidden within the urban fabric—especially in regions with an industrial heritage—remains elusive.

The project’s output will be the GZM Material Resource Atlas—Poland's first tool designed to support planners and local authorities in deciding where and when it is worthwhile to recover construction-grade raw materials. Replacing broad estimates with precise analysis and valorisation of material composition will enable the implementation of reliable resource management strategies, setting a new standard for the transformation of post-industrial regions striving for climate neutrality. The novelty of the project lies in its interdisciplinary integration of architecture, spatial planning, and data science. The research will be conducted at Warsaw University of Technology in collaboration with the Circular Construction Lab at Cornell University, where a six-month research fellowship is planned to refine methods for assessing circularity in the built environment.

Sandra Joanna Przepiórkowska, PhD. Eng.

Sandra Przepiórkowska, PhD. Eng. Arch., is an architect, urban planner, and educator interested in the Circular Economy in architecture. She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Silesian University of Technology. She is the author of a doctoral dissertation awarded in the IARP 2025 Best Scientific Works Competition. She is a recipient of a Fulbright Polish-American Commission scholarship for a research fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, and a winner of the Praktyka competition organized by the Stefan Kuryłowicz Foundation. She is a designer with over 8 years of experience at the Silesia-based Medusa Group design practice and is currently developing her own studio, SKŁAD.